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Charity calls for the release of its kidnapped worker

BMJ 2003; 326 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.326.7392.729/a (Published 05 April 2003) Cite this as: BMJ 2003;326:729
  1. Tony Sheldon
  1. Utrecht

    The international medical relief organisation Médecins Sans Frontiàres took its campaign to release kidnapped aid worker Arjan Erkel to Moscow this week. As the BMJ went to press, it was due to present an internet petition of 300000 signatures to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.

    The petition calls on the authorities in Russia and Daghestan (part of the Russian Federation) to do everything they can to ensure the safe release of Mr Erkel, the head of mission for the Swiss branch of Médecins Sans Frontiàres in the troubled northern Caucasus. He has not been heard of since August 2002, when gunmen kidnapped him in Makhachkala, the capital of Daghestan.

    On Monday Médecins Sans Frontiàres' international chairman, Morten Rostrup, and Mr Erkel's father, Dick, and brother Diederik delivered the petition to the Daghestan authorities before travelling on to Moscow.

    Simultaneously the charity will this week exploit its international presence by presenting its petition to Russian embassies in up to 70 countries, especially those with political leverage on Russia, including the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany.

    Médecins Sans Frontiàres decided to launch an unprecedented high profile international campaign for the release of an individual after six months of quiet diplomacy had achieved nothing.

    Mr Erkel is Dutch, and his campaign is run partly by the Netherlands branch of Médecins Sans Frontiàres, Artsen Zonder Grenzen. It believes that the kidnapping, the fourth of a volunteer from the charity in the region in recent years, is in part political and should not be treated simply as a missing person case.

    Wouter Kok, the campaign's Dutch coordinator, said: “We want to confront them [the Russian and Daghestan authorities] with the name Arjan Erkel so often and on so many occasions. If we can raise public opinion, one little extra step may be taken that makes the difference. We have a moral obligation to our volunteers to do everything and then a bit more.”

    As well as the worldwide internet petition, Mr Erkel's 33rd birthday was marked in March by the release of 209 white balloons, one for each day of his captivity, at a rally in Amsterdam.

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